Jose Siri hit a late go-ahead home run for the second straight game, leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.
Siri’s 423-foot, two-run homer to left field in the seventh inning broke a 2-2 tie. Before this game, Siri had been hitless in 21 at-bats, but he drove in the only run of the game with an eighth-inning solo homer in the Rays’ 1-0 win on Tuesday. He went 2 for 4 on Wednesday.
Siri said his homer on Tuesday helped him get into a good hitting rhythm.
“When you connect with a ball like that, it gives you confidence,” Siri said through an interpreter. “It gives you a better idea of what you want to do at the plate the next at-bats after that.”
The Rays have won five of their last six games, while the A’s have lost back-to-back games for only the second time since the All-Star break.
“He’s a special player,” manager Kevin Cash said about Siri. “We know what he’s capable of doing. It’s pretty consistent defensively and the hitting is pretty streaky, but when he gets timed up at the plate, he can hit a ball a long way and really generate a lot of power. And we’re seeing it both nights.”
Rays starter Ryan Pepiot (7-5), who celebrated his 27th birthday on Wednesday, gave up two runs on three hits in six innings. This was his second start since returning from the injured list after a spider bite and knee infection that required a hospital stay. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in his last seven starts.
Manuel Rodríguez earned his first save of the season, and Drew Rasmussen struck out Oakland’s Brent Rooker with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning.
The Rays scored twice in the fifth inning, taking the lead with a two-out RBI double by Yandy Díaz. Díaz drove in Jonny DeLuca, who had stolen second base after reaching on a fielder’s choice groundout that tied the game. José Caballero and Siri got hits to start the inning.
There was some tension in the Rays dugout late in the game, with Díaz and Caballero needing to be separated. Cash said the players are very competitive as the Rays sit 6.5 games out of a playoff spot.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that are really competing and want things to go perfectly, and sometimes they don’t,” Cash said. “It seemed like there was a little friction, but I’m very confident we’ll move on from it and be ready to go.”
